On November 11, 2004, the world’s largest meeting of NSTA Student Chapters to date took place via interactive television (ITV). This event connected a total of eight student chapters and more than 80 students and faculty members from universities throughout the Midwest.
The one-hour video meeting was hosted by the student chapter at Murray State University (MSU), Murray, Kentucky, and moderated by Brianna Moore, MSU chapter president, with assistance from Robert Castleberry. The meeting program focused on science demonstrations with various liquids.
This meeting built on the success of a pilot ITV meeting one year ago that connected the NSTA Student Chapters at MSU and Texas Tech University. “Our first ITV meeting last year was so exciting! I was delighted to get the invitation to connect again, this time on a much larger scale,” said Julie Thomas, faculty advisor for the Texas Tech student chapter. “This meeting with eight chapters covered an area stretching about 900 miles east to west and more than 1,000 miles north to south—nearly 1/3 of the area of the United States! As far as I know, nothing has ever been done on this scale before with NSTA Student Chapters.”
Joining Murray State and Texas Tech were student chapters from Central Michigan University, St. Cloud State University (Minnesota), Truman State University (Missouri), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Fort Hays State University (Kansas), and Tarleton State University (Texas), Stephenville Campus. “Our chapter has looked forward to this event for several months,” said John Hoffmann, faculty advisor for the Truman State University chapter. “In fact, the experience exceeded our expectations. Our chapter members are excited that they have made contact with preservice science teachers in other programs. They intend to maintain that contact and use it to expand their knowledge of teaching by exchanging ideas with the other NSTA Student Chapters.”
In the demonstrations presented during the meeting, Tarleton State University students aimed a hair dryer at a pan containing layers of water and oil, showing how the surface wind modeled El Niño and produced an upwelling of the lower layer. Despite a technical glitch, Natalie Duncan of the Texas Tech chapter delivered a well-rehearsed and dramatic illustration of the layering effects of milk, syrup, and lamp oil. Stu Clark of the Murray State chapter showed how objects can float at the interfaces of such layered columns of fluids, then demonstrated how to extract DNA from a strawberry.
Truman State students set up a series of timed chemical reactions in three different beakers. “It was exciting to share my iodine clock demo with the other student chapters by ITV,” said Colleen Wideman. “I was relieved it went so well.”
Fort Hays students showed how candles of different lengths floated or sank in two clear liquids, alcohol and water. Finally, the NERDS (Nebraska Educators Really Doing Science) of the University of Nebraska- Lincoln displayed their special tie-dyed t-shirts and demonstrated how to blow bubbles in various ways, including bubbles within bubbles.
“The real benefit of this event, I think, was to meet members of other NSTA Student Chapters and learn about what they were doing,” said Texas Tech’s Julie Thomas. “We got a lot of ideas from each other, including member t-shirts. Those NERDS shirts were great!”
“To be able to take advantage of technology in this way taught me many things and gave me a new perspective on how technology can be used in the classroom,” said MSU’s Moore. “Being able to interact with other students living hundreds of miles from our home universities opened up a whole new world. We were able to share ideas with each other, learn innovative techniques in teaching and learning, and gain a more interactive relationship with students and advisors in our Midwest NSTA Student Chapters. We were also amazed at what could be done through the internet and at the implications this meeting has for our future classrooms.”
“It was exciting to ‘meet’ with students across the country as if they were in the next room,” said one student. “Once the meeting started, I was unable to focus on anything except the fact that history was being made in front of my very eyes,” said another, who added, “I was so involved in the presentations.” A third student said, “I challenge everyone to come to the Dallas NSTA convention. I want to meet each one of you in person!”
“Setting up this meeting took a lot of work, especially on the part of the technical support staff at the sites, and we owe them a debt of gratitude,” added Tom Lough, a faculty co-advisor of the Murray State chapter. “We are hoping to host another such meeting sometime in the spring. We want to explore how this concept might enable student chapters all around the country to do things together using up-to-date technology, and to create a synergy that was not possible before.”
The student chapter movement is a fairly recent NSTA initiative, with the MSU chapter being the first to be founded in the late 1990s. After the idea was adopted by the NSTA Board of Directors and added to the association’s Strategic Plan, NSTA Membership Director Mary Lou Bosco helped to develop more than 60 student chapters across the country.
Student chapters on university campuses can supplement science methods courses, help smooth the transition from preservice to inservice science teaching, provide opportunities for networking among preservice science teachers, and bolster the NSTA with an infusion of younger members. “Through their chapter activities, preservice science teachers could be better prepared for the transition to the science classroom,” noted NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler.
Science and science education faculty members in higher education seeking more information about starting an NSTA Student Chapter should e-mail Bosco at marylou_b@nsta.org, or call her at 703-312-9370. For more information about setting up a joint student chapter meeting by ITV, contact Tom Lough, MSU College of Education, at tom.lough@coe.murraystate.edu or 270-762-2538.
This article was written by Tom Lough (Murray State University chapter), with assistance from Julie Thomas (Texas Tech University chapter) and John Hoffmann (Truman State University chapter).